How to Manage Startup Programs in Windows Using CCleaner

Sick of annoying programs always starting when your computer boots up? You should be. They take up extra memory AND they slow down the boot time significantly. MrGroove recently explained how to disable startup items using MSCONFIG, a utility that is built-in to windows however a few of the groovyReaders left some comments about other methods so I though we would take a peak and explore those ideas a bit. So today’s groovyPost is going to explore the procedure using a slightly more powerful tool that can not only disable but fully remove startup entries from your system. Yup, were talking about CCleaner and as you know, it’s not just for cleaning the startup list, it’s also a powerful tool for removing junk from your computer, cleaning the registry, and quickly clearing your internet history.

We talked about most of this in other CCleaner tutorials and you can grab a copy of it here however let’s get back to our original focus on this groovyPost and review the quick steps for using CCleaner to update the startup list for windows PC’s.

Step 1

Launch CCleaner and then ClickTools > Startup.

Step 2

The Startup menu will list ALL of your Windows startup entries. You have 3 options here:

Enable

Disable

Delete

The result of these functions should be obvious, but keep in mind that if you delete an entry there is no undo button. You can always add the program back manually, but that can be a real pain if the program doesn’t have an option to add it to start for you.

Conclusion

CCleaner is an easy way to enable, disable, or completely remove startup entries. The program is free and it also has several other features that make it a worthy utility for your computer. As far as managing the startup goes, I like to use Windows’ built-in Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and compare how much memory/cpu each program uses before cutting it from the Startup list.

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